OLEC documentary screening capstone event of 2010 Scripps Day

AT RIGHT: Abi Evans, development manager for the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the E.W. Scripps Company, and E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Director Bob Stewart react to a comment from a student during the screening on Monday, Sept. 27. BOTTOM RIGHT: Sue Porter, vice president of programs for the Scripps Howard Foundation, speaks to a Scripps student on Scripps Day, Monday, Sept. 27. / Photos by Christina Baird

By Erin Roberts, roberte1@ohio.edu

ATHENS, Ohio (Sept. 30, 2010)—Seven Scripps students had the opportunity on Scripps Day, Monday, Sept. 27, to present documentaries they produced this past summer during the 2010 Ohio-Leipzig European Center study abroad trip to Germany.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Kyle Ackley, a sophomore media arts and studies major, who was part of a four-person student team that documented how three generations of a German family view their identification as Germans differently. “I can’t wait to go back. It was a completely eye-opening experience.

Eye-opening, indeed. Sixteen students from three different schools in Scripps—the Schools of Visual Communication and Media Arts and Studies and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism—participated in the six-week program, working across disciplines and cultures to meaningfully capture German life on camera.

School of Visual Communication Professor Sam Girton, one of the trip’s faculty leaders, said the experience allowed him a glimpse into what the Scripps College will become after the completion of the Schoonover Center for Communication, which will unite the students and faculty of all five Scripps’ schools.

“We bridged visual communication, journalism and media arts and studies,” said Girton. “I think it’s a preview of what the college will look like under one roof.”

The first film, “Post Industrial,” produced by journalism student Brian Grady and media arts and studies students Andrew McMillan and Max Rodriguez, explored how the town of Markleeburg and others like it have been converted from dirty, depressing lignite coal mine towns into bright, clean lake resorts. Students were asked to immerse themselves in German culture and to research story ideas before the trip, but most of the documentary subjects were not determined until the trip was under way.

“We had all kinds of information and maps to help us prepare for the task,” said Rodriguez. “The problem was, it was all in German.”

Luckily for the students, they found many Germans spoke English fairly well and were willing to help make connections, provide translation and secure necessary access to places and people featured in the documentaries.

The second film, “3 Generations,” profiled the Baumgartl family and how they formed their cultural identities through Nazi Germany, the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), the unification of both West and East Germany and modern Germany as part of the European Union.

The student team, comprised Ackley, fellow visual communication student Heather Germann, media arts and studies student Andrew Thomas, and visual communication and media arts and studies double major Annette Drapac, was struck by how conscious Germans are about their country’s history as opposed to how aware Americans are of theirs.

“They think about it, and they live it,” Germann said. “It makes you rethink how little we think about it as Americans.”

Their story required a great deal of research, travel, tape, still images, b-roll and editing. Bob Sullivan, vice president of content for the E.W. Scripps Company’s television division, was impressed with the depth of storytelling students achieved with the documentary.

“I saw a clear commitment to the story,” Sullivan said. “You really wanted to tell the story.”

Drapac, who was actually overcome with emotion for the subject family at one point, said the team really didn’t have a choice in the level of passion they ended up having to get the documentary just right.

“We had to tell the story for the family,” she said. “They totally opened up to us.”

Germann agreed, “They took us under their wing. They invited us into their homes. We wanted to show this to everyone so they would know what they meant to us.”

Chip Mahaney, director of digital content for the E.W. Scripps Company's broadcast division, was struck by the students’ ability to take a large story, get to the heart of it and then produce a meaningful documentary in such a short time.

“It’s an important storyteller’s technique to be able to take a story and make it smaller in a very compressed time,” he said. “It’s not easy to work like that.”

Mahaney was impressed by the quality of student work and of the concept of the trip: to take students from different disciplines and give them a common assignment that forces them to work together.

“It may not be ideal in all projects, but it worked this time,” he said. “They’ll always have that shared experience.”

Next year’s OLEC trip is already being planned to focus on environmental journalism. Interested students should contact Bernhard Debatin in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

Monday’s screening served as the capstone event for the fifth annual Scripps Day, a day in which E.W. Scripps Company and Scripps Howard Foundation professionals from across the country visit Scripps students on the Ohio University main campus to share expertise in classrooms and to conduct mock interviews and résumé critiques. For more information on the event, please visit www.scrippscollege.ohio.edu/scripps-day.

For more information on OLEC and to read first-hand accounts from students about this past summer’s experience, visit www.bobcatsabroad.com/olec.